Technology-Mediated Social Participation

Jennifer Preece (preece@umd.edu)College of Information Studies – iSchool

Ben Shneiderman (ben@cs.umd.edu)

Dept. of Computer Science

Goal: Transform society with social media

• Healthcare

• Disaster response

• Energy

• Education

• Culture & diversity

• Political participation

• Environment & climate

• Citizen science

• Economic health

• Public safety

• Globalization & development

• Local civic involvement

• Malicious attacks • Privacy violations• Lack of trust• Failure to be universal• Unreliable when needed

Misuse by • Terrorists & criminals• Promoters of racial hatred • Political oppressors

Challenges & Dangers

Early Steps

http://iparticipate.wikispaces.com

Informal Gathering College Park, MD, April 2009

Article: Science March 2009

BEN SHNEIDERMAN

NSF Grant IIS-0956571 www.tmsp.umd.edu

Workshops: Dec 2009 & April 2010

- Scientific Foundations

- Advancing Design of Social Participation Systems

- Visions of What is Possible With Sharable Socio- technical Infrastructure

- Participating in Health 2.0

- Educational Priorities for Technology Mediated Social Participation

- Engaging the Public in Open Government: Social Media Technology and Policy for Government Transparency

Cyberinfrastructure for Social Action on National Priorities

1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact• Healthcare, disaster response, energy

• Education, culture & diversity…

2) Develop Theories of Social Participation• How do social media networks evolve? • How can participation be increased?

3) Provide Technology Infrastructure• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts

Vision: Social Participation

From Reader to Leader:Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation

Preece & Shneiderman, AIS Trans. Human-Computer Interaction1 (1), 2009 aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol1/iss1/5/

Reader500M

Contributor500K

Collaborator `All

Users2B

Leader

1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact• Healthcare, disaster response, energy

• Education, culture & diversity…

2) Develop Theories of Social Participation• How do social media networks evolve? • How can participation be increased?

3) Provide Technology Infrastructure• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts

Vision: Social Participation

NodeXL: Network Overview for Discovery & Exploration in Excel

www.codeplex.com/nodexlcasci.umd.edu/NodeXL_Teaching

Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL

I. Getting Started with Analyzing Social Media Networks 1. Introduction to Social Media and Social Networks 2. Social media: New Technologies of Collaboration 3. Social Network Analysis

II. NodeXL Tutorial: Learning by Doing 4. Layout, Visual Design & Labeling 5. Calculating & Visualizing Network Metrics  6. Preparing Data & Filtering 7. Clustering &Grouping

III Social Media Network Analysis Case Studies 8. Email 9. Threaded Networks 10. Twitter 11. Facebook   12. WWW 13. Flickr 14. YouTube  15. Wiki Networks 

www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/723354/description

Nation of Neighbors website: Art Hanson

NoN Report: Promotes Community Safety

Break-In/BurglaryTheft-Other Than from HomeVandalism/Graffiti/DestructionSuspicious ActivityThreatAssaultAccident-Motor VehicleDrug ActivityFirePublic NuisanceReckless EndangermentAnimal ProblemATV ComplaintLitter/Garbage DumpingQuality of Life IssueOther

NoN Forums: How to motivate?

BioTracker Team

Arijit Biswas (CS, PhD student); Anne Bowser (iSchool, MS student); Jen Hammock (EOL); Derek Hansen (iSchool); David Jacobs (CS, UMIACS); Darcy Lewis (iSchool, PhD student); Cyndy Parr (EOL); Jenny Preece (iSchool); Dana Rotman (iSchool, PhD student); Erin Stewart (iSchool MS student); Eric (CS, Undergrad)

Research questions

• Q1 How can a socially intelligent system be used to direct human effort and expertise to the most valuable collection and classification tasks?

 

• Q2 What are the most effective strategies for motivating enthusiasts and experts to voluntarily contribute and collaborate?

Biotrackers.net

BioTracker system architecture

Community Portal

Profiles, groups, and species pages

Images, Identifications, Maps, Threaded discussion

information collection, clarification questions

uploadimage

answers

Mobile Devices with BioTracker app

Camera Internet connection

Match recommendations Q&A component Biotracks map

Photos, Biocaching

and commentary

Enthusiasts

ComputationalTools

Image databaseShape descriptors

Image segmentation algorithm Image recognition algorithm

Inference system

userinput

Possible new

speciesaccuracyestimate

Scientists

identification and upload

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org)

Take Away Messages

• Identify ambitious research themes

• Develop consensus with colleagues

• Engage other disciplines

• Reach out to journalists & public

• Work with industry & government

• Communicate to policy makers

• Create courses & degree programs

Thursday morning talks:

- Nation of Neighbors: Understanding users and their motivations

- Encyclopedia of Life: Motivating public enthusiasts and expert scientists to document the world's species

- Using Online Games to Integrate Human and Computer Vision

Summer Social WebShop, August 23-26, 2011 IIS1135022: WebShop 3.0: Technology-Mediated Social Participation

NSF Social Computational Systems Program: SES-0968546: BioTracker: Melding Human & Machine Intelligence

to Create Large-Scale Collaborative Systems IIS-0968521: Supporting a Nation of Neighbors with

Community Analysis Visualization Environments

NodeXL Project Continues - Thanks to Microsoft

Social Media Research Foundation - Launched

Next Steps (& Thanks to NSF)

Biotrackers.netwww.cs.umd.edu/hcil/NON

Nodexl.codeplex.comwww.smrfoundation.org